Ecmweb 4871 304ecm15pic1
Ecmweb 4871 304ecm15pic1
Ecmweb 4871 304ecm15pic1
Ecmweb 4871 304ecm15pic1
Ecmweb 4871 304ecm15pic1

What's Wrong Here?

April 1, 2003
These two receptacles serve clothes dryers located in a hotel laundry room.

How well do you know the Code? Think you can spot violations the original installer either ignored or couldn't identify? Here's your chance to moonlight as an electrical inspector and second-guess someone else's work from the safety of your living room or office. Joe Tedesco, who has a knack for finding shoddy electrical work, did the dirty work and found this mess. Now it's your turn to identify the violation.

Find the Answer

Electrical Technology Level 3 students Brett Stratton, Jason Landry, Michael Schwinn, and Steven Raymond from the Pinkerton Academy, Derry, N.H., sent in the following correct response. We always thought EC&M could come in handy in the classroom.

“If the wires are under-sized for the dryers, and they appear to be, they're in violation of 220.18, which requires the installer to calculate the load based on 5,000W or the nameplate rating on the dryer, whichever is larger. In addition, the size of the junction box is woefully undersized for the conductors, which should contain 12 10 AWG wires, according to 314.16(A). The other problem that's evident from the picture is that the dryers are equipped with a 3-wire cord. If they've been installed recently and aren't located in a mobile home or a recreational vehicle, then they're in violation of 250.140, which requires the use of a 4-wire connection to the outlet.

“There also appears to be some kind of funky grounding wire externally attached to the outlet on the right. Who knows what this was designed for?”

> Try Another Quiz

About the Author

Joe Tedesco

Tedesco served the industry in many roles during his career. He was a director, senior electrical code instructor for National Technology Transfer, Inc. and American Trainco, Inc.. He was also a codes, standards and seminar specialist for the International Association of Electrical Inspectors and an electrical field service specialist for the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass. He ran his own business as an NEC consultant and is a Massachusetts licensed master electrician and journeyman electrician and certified electrical inspector (one and two family 2A; General 2B, and Plan Review, 2C). Tedesco also wrote articles for CEE News and EC&M (Code Violations Illustrated and What's Wrong Here?) for more than 15 years and helped launched the Moving Violations video series.

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